S27 ORME 7 2013 IT_Layout 1 01/11/2013 15:48 Page 171
Communications & IT
BP needed high-speed connections between its various offices in congested Cairo.
From the wellhead to
the rooftop
When BP in Cairo decided it needed reliable high-speed connections between its various offices, it chose a wireless technology that may be unfamiliar to some readers. However, use of free space optics is growing as part of the need for even more alternatives to traditional wired and wireless communications, as Vaughan O’Grady finds out.
“W
E REALISED PEOPLE would be reliant on these things - that downtime would be abhorrent. So we had to do three things. One was design a product that was the most reliable possible and wouldn’t fail. Second to only sell it in environments to which it was suited. And lastly to make sure it’s backed by resellers who can provide any service the customer needs.” We are talking here about communications. Or, more accurately, Stephen Patrick is. Patrick is the CEO of Wireless Excellence Limited, a leading designer and manufacturer of professional wireless products for a wide variety of applications. That includes Wi-Fi, WiMAX, microwave, millimetre wave and more. ‘More’, in this case, includes free space optics (FSO), which uses infra-red laser technology to transmit data. The focus on FSO in this article is because BP in Egypt has chosen what may, to many readers, be an unfamiliar wireless technology to send data to and from its various Cairo offices. As for why it chose the technology, the
background is as follows. BP has had a presence in Cairo for a long time. It was consolidating facilities into different offices or buildings around the city. It therefore required high-speed links between those sites, a not unusual need where multiple buildings in the same city are involved. Patrick takes up the story: “BP realised that relying on the local telecom provider was going to be not only very expensive, but would not enable them to reach their desired availability and reliability targets for the network.
Consistent
Conversely, ‘owning the infrastructure’ with a wireless solution means that all the equipment is owned and under control of the
Equally important, FSO is not affected by rain, which can be a problem for a number of technologies
customer - who can therefore take whatever actions are required to ensure consistent and high uptimes. A local partner responded to an enquiry made by BP locally in Egypt, and suggested our solution as the ‘best fit’ for the customer needs.” Wireless Excellence offers a number of different wireless systems but in this case Patrick is referring to FSO. In principle, the idea is simple: you have a box that generates a laser beam - a very low power light beam - which is modulated. It carries data in the form of ones and zeros from one point to another point. There they are converted back to data. In practice, however, making this technology reliable has, Patrick says, cost the telecommunications industry as a whole many millions of dollars and a lot of work. Even when it was commercialised back in the late 1990s companies like Wireless Excellence had to overcome a lack of awareness of FSO (compared to, say, microwave or fibre) with demonstrations and trials. But it has been worth it, and not just for Wireless Excellence. Customers especially Issue 7 2013
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